MeV implantation hits generated interest as a gettering option in silicon s
ince it was established that under the appropriate conditions of irradiatio
n fluence, substrate oxygen content, and annealing treatment, at least two
distinct regions, denoted as R-p and R-p/2, getter impurities (M. Tamura, T
. Ando, O.K., Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. B 59/60 (1991) 572; A. Agar
wal, K. Christensen, D. Venables, D.M. Maher, G.A. Rozgonyi, Appl. Phys. Le
tt. 69 (1996) 3899). In the present work we report on the thermal stability
of Fe gettered at R-p due to MeV ion implantation-induced dislocation loop
s in Fe contaminated CZ Si wafers, and an activation energy for the release
of gettered Fe of 0.80 eV. It has also been determined that, the gettering
mechanism in the R-p/2 region in epitaxial Si for high MeV ion doses (appr
oximate to 5 x 10(15) Ge cm(-2)) is vacancy-related, since TEM analysis rev
ealed 4-11-nm diameter voids. Under the annealing conditions studied, these
voids were found to be more efficient at Fe capture than R-p defects. (C)
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